JAMES FORREST claimed his fourteenth major honour with Celtic on Saturday when his team comfortably defeated Motherwell in the Scottish Cup final but there is, he says, no chance of the Scottish champions taking their foot off the gas.

Celtic made history at the weekend by winning the double treble for the first time in the club’s history.

But Forrest was quick to point out that he is desperate to extend the team’s winning streak and he admits that as soon as the squad reconvene for pre-season training in a few weeks time, at the forefront of their minds will be re-writing the history books once again by winning their third consecutive treble.

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“Quite a few people have mentioned that (the treble treble) already and, when we report back for pre-season training, that’s what everyone will be wanting,” he said.

“We now know how difficult it is to earn that but we’ll just need to make sure that we keep working hard.”

Forrest has been one of Celtic’s stand-out players throughout the course of the season although he missed out on getting his name on the score sheet at Hampden by fluffing a chance early on in the second half, which would have put Celtic three up.

Despite that miss though, Forrest and his teammates never looked in danger of losing to Motherwell and he admits that this year’s Scottish Cup win felt even sweeter than last year’s defeat of Aberdeen.

“I think this is better because, obviously, this (the double treble) has never been done before,” he said.

“We’ve had to be at the top of our game to do that for two seasons and it’s taken a lot of hard work. This is unbelievable for everyone at the club.

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“There’s massive pressure in every game you play for this club but we’ve never experienced anything bigger than this, knowing that the double treble was at stake.

“But we turned up at Hampden, put in a really good team performance and we were delighted with the win.”

Brendan Rogers’ team were less dominant over the past twelve months than they were the previous year, in which they went through the entire domestic year unbeaten. They may not have been quite as flawless this year, losing four league games, but the challenge his team faced over the past season was, believes Forrest, far greater than it was the previous year. And so this second consecutive treble was, says the winger, an ever greater achievement.

“This year winning the league was much harder for us – we drew a few games and lost a few as well, which proved that,” he said.

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“It also shows what a great achievement this is and how high the standards we’ve set ourselves are since the manager came in. We’re all absolutely buzzing with how things have gone since then.

“However, we want to keep kicking on. That’s what the manager said to us last year – ‘How do you better the Invincibles season?’ but I think we’ve managed to do that because we’ve made history now and that’s incredible.

“The way the gaffer is, he’ll come back again in the summer and want our standards to be raised even further. He told us that, after his first season, we could have gone a little soft after doing so well and maybe we haven’t always done as well as we could but it’s another clean sweep and that’s amazing.”

Celtic had the rare privilege of celebrating their Scottish Cup win with an open-topped bus parade on Saturday evening and Forrest admits that being given the opportunity to share the club’s historic success with their fans makes the achievement even more special.

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“We have a lot of fans working at the club and it’s great for them as well – no-one has seen this before in their lifetime; it’s brilliant,” he said.

“Even getting the open-top bus was a first for us and that was brilliant as well. The timing was great, with the skipper having his testimonial on the Sunday. He was hoping it would go well at Hampden for the club but also for his day and he deserved it to turn out the way it did.”

Forrest has made quite a mark in this year’s Celtic team, in no small part due to the consistency he has shown. He has racked up over 60 appearances for club and country this year, which is no mean feat for a player who has had his fair share of injury problems.

But the season has, unsurprisingly, taken something of a toll on the winger and he admits that he is ready for a rest before getting back into the thick of things when the Champions League qualifiers begin in just a couple of months time.

“We’ll have a few weeks now to rest but also to prepare for coming back pre-season, which is always tough,” he said.

“This year we also have an extra two Champions League qualifiers to play. So we’re loving this at the moment but we’ll be ready when next season comes.

“The body needs time to recover. It’s been 50-odd games for a lot of us but, as the manager tells us, that’s what happens when you’re successful. Everyone wants to be involved in cup finals and you’re happy to stay on for that extra week to do that.

“Days like Saturday make it all worthwhile and that’s what we’ll be aiming to do again next season.”